BULLDOG BULLETIN

Sarah Adams Families,

I hope you enjoyed the extended weekend. I wanted to take a moment to extend a huge thank you to everyone who helped make our Halloween festivities a tremendous success. Thanks to the incredible support and enthusiasm of our parents, teachers, and staff, the Halloween classroom parties were filled with creativity, joy, and lots of fun.

We also want to thank everyone who joined us for the Halloween parade! The energy from parents, friends, and family members who cheered on our students in their costumes truly made the event special. It was heartwarming to see the whole community come together, and we couldn’t have asked for a better turnout, despite the windy weather!

Friendly Reminders for Safety Before and After School

As we head into the colder months, we’d like to kindly ask for everyone’s support to ensure our students’ safety before and after school. We know that drop-off and pick-up times can be busy, and with everyone’s cooperation, we can keep our school environment safe and welcoming for all.

• Safety on the Grounds: Please remind your children to stay safe by walking calmly and avoiding running or shouting as they arrive and leave. This helps everyone stay safe and keeps our mornings and afternoons peaceful.

• Dogs on School Property: We love our furry friends, but to ensure the safety of our students and staff, we ask that families keep dogs off school grounds during school hours. We understand this can be challenging for dog-loving families, but this policy helps keep our environment safe and comfortable for everyone.

We appreciate your ongoing support and cooperation with these efforts. By working together, we create a safe, positive, and welcoming environment for our students to grow and thrive. Have a wonderful weekend.

Fondly,

Dr. Colleen Conway

📌 November 11: PTO Meeting

📌 November 21: Parent Teacher Conferences

📌 November 22 & 23: Annie Musical Performances!

📌 November 25: Early Release | Parent Teacher Conferences

It seems like our cold and flu season has come sooner than expected this year! If your child is out sick and has a doctor's note, please send the documentation to our school nurse, the classroom teacher, and your child's PE teacher:

• Autumn Wallin, School nurse: Autumn.Wallin@lz95.org
• Lisa LePage, PE teacher: Lisa.LePage@lz95.org
• Nick Georgeson, PE Teacher: Nick.Georgeson@lz95.org

This extra communication is helpful to make sure we accommodate any needs.

At District 95, we’re committed to preparing students for success today and in the future, and this means embracing innovative tools that support modern learning. We’re excited to introduce SchoolAI, a new, safe K-12 platform designed specifically for education. While your student may or may not interact with SchoolAI, our teachers now have an incredible resource to enhance their teaching and engage students with interactive, meaningful learning experiences.

Why SchoolAI?
Unlike general AI platforms (Like ChatGPT), SchoolAI was chosen for its education-first design, student privacy safeguards, and unique features that make learning exciting and safe. The platform meets all Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA) compliance standards, ensuring secure, sandboxed spaces where students can explore and learn with teacher supervision. Learn more here.

Empowering Learning and Growth
With tools like Spaces, students can dive into role-playing historical events or interviewing notable figures, making classroom content come alive. Features like Mission Control give teachers real-time insights into student progress, allowing them to provide personalized support and foster collaboration.

Connecting to Our Strategic Plan: Empower95
This initiative aligns with Empower95’s action steps to equip educators with the skills and tools needed for incorporating AI effectively. Our goal is to create a well-rounded learning environment where students develop critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and tech proficiency to thrive in the future.

Looking Ahead
District 95 is committed to safe, responsible, and innovative use of AI in education. SchoolAI marks an important step in this journey, helping our teachers create engaging, inclusive, and effective learning experiences.

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to empower our students and teachers with cutting-edge resources!

Student and staff health and wellness is a top priority in District 95. In accordance with state law, schools maintain a supply of undesignated medications (medications that can be administered to any person) for use in emergency situations.

In addition to information included in the Parent-Student Handbook related to undesignated asthma and epinephrine medications, please see the form linked HERE to learn more about the district’s supply of opioid antagonists for use in emergency situations.

Any additional questions related to the maintenance of undesignated medications may be directed to Dr. Lauren McArdle, Assistant Superintendent for Student Services, Administrative Services, and Operations (lauren.mcardle@lz95.org).

As we head into the cold and flu season, we wanted to share some helpful tips for staying healthy and ways to help decrease the spread of germs:

• Kids should stay hydrated and eat breakfast (either at home or at school)

• Kids should get plenty of sleep and be well rested for the school day

• Kids should wash hands on a regular basis before and after eating, when they are dirty, or after sneezing/blowing their nose

• Remind kids to cover coughs and sneezes with tissue or an elbow

As a reminder, students with a fever of 100.4 or higher, vomiting, diarrhea, or other significant symptoms (i.e., persistent cough, body aches) should be kept home from school. Additionally, please see the notes below:

• Students must be free from fever, vomiting, and diarrhea symptoms without the use of medication for at least 24 hours before returning to school

• For students with an illness that requires antibiotics (such as strep throat), students must be on antibiotics for at least 24 hours before returning to school

Thank you for your partnership as we all work together to decrease the spread of illness in school!

In advance of Parent-Teacher Conferences, we want to take a moment to provide information to parents/guardians regarding their rights to participate in school-related meetings for their students - as we believe home-school partnerships are critical to student success.

The School Visitation Rights Act permits employed parents/guardians who are unable to meet with educators because of a work conflict the right to time off from work to attend necessary educational conferences at their child’s school. The full act can be found HERE; please inquire with your employer if you have questions about your eligibility to access time off for conferences.

This year, in conjunction with the District 95 Board of Education and administration, the Superintendent has started a new initiative called “Sip ‘n Chat” where up to two Board members, one or more administrators, and Dr. Gallt will be available at various locations in the community for people to drop in for conversations relating to our school district. Key administrators will also be on hand as subject matter experts in particular areas, but discussions are not restricted to only that topic. The hope is to have room for up to 20-25 people at one time, though it is also fine to come and go – please consider stopping by for a cup of coffee and a chat! The next Sip ‘n Chat dates are listed below:

Subject Matter Experts: Technology, Communications

November 13, 2024

District 95 Young Adult Center, 315 Surryse Road, Lake Zurich

6:30 - 8:00 p.m.

Subject Matter Experts: College and Career

December 9, 2024

First Watch, 20505 N Rand Rd, Kildeer

8:30 – 10:00 a.m.

Subject Matter Experts: Supporting Student Needs

The district is working to build its resource library for families in several high-interest areas. Over the summer and early this fall, the resource center has been expanded to include more topics - such as safety topics and resilience-building resources. This center will also serve as a “hub” where families can find recordings and presentation materials from family workshops.

In order to access the Family Resource Center from the district website, families can select the “Parents” tab - followed by the “Family Resource Center” tab (they can also directly access the center by following the link HERE). Be on the lookout for future communications when we add more resources to the FRC!

The 2024-25 Sarah Adams yearbook is now available for ordering. We have soft and hard cover options, which will be delivered to school in May. Please email SAYearbookLZ95@gmail.com with any questions and don't forget to join the Sarah Adams Yearbook (that exact name) facebook group to submit your photos for inclusion in the yearbook.

Link to order - https://yearbookordercenter.com/job/25039

Job Number - 25039